Africa (1014-1020)


Africa under colonial domination p. 1014
  • Africans became participants in the Great War due to their ties to European powers
  • European states transmitted their military conflicts to African soil and recruited soldiers from their colonies
  • After the war, peace makers in Paris still ignored African pleas for social and political reform
  • European powers focused on economic exploitation of their African colonies
  • Capitalism destroyed the self-sufficiency of African economies
War in Africa p. 1015
  • German imperialists managed to form a colonial empire in Africa; included Togo, Cameroon, German South-West Africa, and German East Africa.
  • Consequence of war for Africans was the Allies invaded German colonies
  • Germans outnumbered 10 to 1
  • 1 million+ soldiers participated directly in military campaigns
Challenges to European Authority pg. 1016
  • as Europeans began leaving the colonies in large numbers as the war dragged on, Africans took the opportunity to stage armed uprisings and other forms of revolt
  • Europeans had no choice but to divert their scare military to put down the revolt, which they succeeded at
The Colonial Economy pg. 1016
  • colonial powers pursued two key economic objectives in Africa; they wanted to make sure that the colonized paid for the institutions- bureaucracies, judiciary, police, and military forces- that kept them in subjugation; and they develop export- oriented economies characterized by the exchange of unprocessed raw materials or minimally processed cash crops for manufactured goods from abroad.
  • colonies were tightly integrated into and dependent on a European- dominated global economy, which hurt trade and markets during The Great Depression in the 1930s
Infrastructure pg. 1016
  • Africa's economic integration required investment in infrastructures
  • during the early 20th century, the new colonial economy first became visible in the form of port facilities, roads, railways, and telegraph wires
  • efficient transportation and communication networks not only facilitated conquest and rule but also linked the agriculture or mineral wealth of a colony to the outside world
  • Africans paid for the infrastructure with their labor and taxes
Farming and Mining pg. 1017
-Whites owned farms and used colonial taxation to drive Africans into the labor force.
-Africans had to work to pay the taxes on land, houses, livestock, and people themselves.king307.jpg
-Cash crop farming had the largest proportion of Africans but wage labor on plantations or mines was also common.
-Peanuts from Senegal and northern Nigeria, cotton from Uganda, cocoa from the Gold Coast, rubber from Congo, and palm oil from Ivory Coast and the Niger delta.
-Colonial mining took place in parts of central and southern Africa, mining for copper, gold, and diamonds.
-The absence of male labor and payment of minimal wage impoverished rural areas

Labor Practices
-Where taxation failed to create labor force, outright forced labor was practiced.
-Forced labor and barely disguised forms of slavery were prominent.
-Labor abuses started with concessionary companies, which were authorized by their governments to exploit a region's resources with the help of their own system of taxation and labor recruitment.
African Nationalism
  • Decades after Great War European powers exploited Africa's natural and labor resources with extension of the colonial system
  • Africans were disappointed that their contributions towards the war went unrewarded
  • After the Great War ideas concerning self determination and gained acceptance among a group of african nationalists gave rise to incipient nationalist movements
  • An elite class of African intellectuals became heavily involved in this movement
    • This "New Elite" got its status from(High Ranked):
      • employment and education
      • Civil servants
      • Physicians
      • Lawyers
      • Writers
    • They usually got their education in Western Europe or sometimes the United States
  • Jomo Kenyatta:Was one of the elite class members.
    • Spent almost 15 years in Europe studying at different schools
    • Very articulate Nationalist
    • Later led Kenya to Independence from Britain
  • Europeans introduced their ideologies to Africans when colonizing.
  • African nationalists often used European concept of "nations" to create unity among African groups.
  • They thought it was the most effective way to resist colonization/colonialism.
  • Nationalists looked back to concepts of ethnicity, religion and language to help identify Africans.
  • Other Nationalists discarded race tactic of identifying Africans because it was too similar to how Americas labeled them.

Sources from the Past: Africa for Africans: p, 1019
  • Marcus Garvey (1887-1940) was pivotal in black nationalism.
  • He rejected the idea of assimilation into American culture, but wanted a state in Africa for blacks.
  • Ideas like that of Theodor Herzl with Zionism, but for blacks, not Jews.
  • He rejected the notion of him being the "Black Moses" saying others who changed history were not "Jesus Christs" but they were able to make a difference.
  • Question at the end: In his speech, how does Marcus Garvey convey the significance of Africa for both Africans and those involved in the black diaspora?